re to withdraw from Lazica, to
give up all claim to it, and to hand over its possession to the Romans;
(2) they were in return to receive from Rome an annual sum of 30,000
pieces of gold, the amount due for the first seven years being paid in
advance; (3) the Christians in Persia were guaranteed the full and free
exercise of their religion, but were forbidden to make converts from
the disciples of Zoroaster; (4) commercial intercourse was to be allowed
between the two empires, but the merchants were restricted to the use of
certain roads and certain emporia; (5) diplomatic intercourse was to be
wholly free, and the goods of ambassadors were to be exempt from duty;
(6) Daras was to continue a fortified town, but no new fortresses were
to be built upon the frontier by either nation, and Daras itself was not
to be made the headquarters of the Prefect of the East, or to be held
by an unnecessarily large garrison; (7) all disputes arising between
the two nations were to be determined by courts of arbitration; (8)
the allies of the two nations were to be included in the treaty, and to
participate in its benefits and obligations; (9) Persia was to undertake
the sole charge of maintaining the Caspian Gates against the Huns and
Alans; (10) the peace was made for a period of fifty years. It has been
held that by this treaty Justinian consented to become a tributary of
the Persian Empire; and undoubtedly it was possible for Oriental vanity
to represent the arrangement made in this light. But the million and a
half, which Rome undertook to pay in the course of the next fifty years,
might well be viewed by the Romans as an outlay for which they received
an ample return in the cession to them of the Persian part of Lazica,
and in the termination of their obligation to contribute towards the
maintenance of the Caspian Gates. If there was any real danger of those
results following from the Persian occupation of Lazica which both
nations anticipated, the sum must be considered to have been one of the
best investments ever made by a State. Even if we believe the dangers
apprehended to have been visionary, yet it cannot be viewed as an
exorbitant price to have paid for a considerable tract of fertile
country, a number of strong fortresses, and the redemption of an
obligation which could not with honor be disowned.

To Chosroes the advantage secured by the treaty was similar to that
which Rome had obtained by the peace of A.D. 532. Being no